Social Media - Are You Building Your Network?

Has your company taken the plunge into the Social Media abyss yet? If not, what’s holding you back? Could be, you’re like most other skeptics out there who have been hiding in the background waiting to see if this is all just a fad, or if in fact Social Media is here to stay. Or maybe it’s that even though you realize this is something you need to get involved in, you just have no idea where to begin.

No matter what it is that’s keeping you from moving forward, NOW is the time to get on board. According to Web Strategy’s Social Network Stats for 2010, Facebook, which has over 400 million members, received more visits last week than Google. Twitter reports show that there are over 50 million tweets occurring per day, which is an average of 600 tweets per second. LinkedIn currently has over 60 million users in over 200 countries, and has experienced a growth of 5 million new users in the last 2 months.

Needless to say, with numbers like these, it looks like Social Media is going to stick around for quite some time. You really don’t want to be left behind do you? Marketing budgets are dwindling and competition is high. Currently there’s no better way to expand your brand and get maximum exposure, at little or no cost to your company, than your social network. How can you NOT take advantage of that?

Ok, so now you agree, there’s no more hiding from it. But where do you begin? According to an article written by Constructive Communication, Inc. - Online Social Media, the first thing you need to do is identify which social media platform your key audience is participating in the most. Listen to what their saying before determining your goals and strategies. Also, check out what other companies in your industry are doing. It doesn’t mean that if it’s working for them that you should adopt their same methods, however it can be a good starting point as you develop your own social media plan.

It’s time to start building your network. Don’t be left out in the cold. Social Networking is what your competitors are doing, your future customers are doing, and it’s what your company SHOULD be doing.